1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the control of an optical disk drive, more particularly to a computing system capable of controlling disk loading and disk unloading operations of an optical disk drive through a control key of the computing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional method for controlling disk loading and unloading operations of an optical disk drive that is mounted in a computer housing involves pressing of a disk loading/unloading button found on a control panel of the optical disk drive. When the disk loading/unloading button is pressed, a control circuit in the optical disk drive will first detect whether the optical disk drive is currently in a disk loading or disk unloading state before executing the requested disk loading or disk unloading operation. To permit operation of the disk loading/unloading button, the control panel of the optical disk drive should be accessible from the exterior of the computer housing. However, when the control panel of the optical disk drive is exposed, an adverse affect on the appearance of the computer housing results. As a remedy, some computer housings are provided with a movable cover plate to cover the control panel of the optical disk drive so as to improve the overall appearance of the computer housing. However, due to the presence of the cover plate, when a disk loading or disk unloading operation is to be performed, the cover plate must first be moved to an uncovering position to permit access to the disk loading/unloading button on the control panel of the optical disk drive, which arises in some inconvenience to computer users.
Moreover, apart from the aforesaid hardware control method, there is also available a software control method using a Windows operating system of a computer, wherein the Windows operating system will first detect whether the optical disk drive is currently in a disk loading or disk unloading state before executing the requested disk loading or disk unloading operation. However, in the conventional software control method, the Windows operating system must execute a series of complicated commands for detection and decision operations with the support of relevant drivers in order to accomplish the requisite disk drive control. The response time involved is relatively long, and the software control method is not available in other operating systems, such as DOS.